Phonics Games and Methods of Play

ABSTRACT

A novel method of game play and game components that, in one embodiment, is in the form of playing cards associated or representing phonetic sounds and a score wherein cards are arranged in sequences to form words and then a score is calculated. In alternative embodiments, the components used to play the game may take other forms, such as tiles, or the game may be played in different media, such as using electronic displays on a computer or electronic devices and on an interactive network. Further alternatives involve providing a game board that allows the player to advance a game piece along designated spaces to a finish line or goal.

The applicant claims the benefit of U.S. Application No. 62/489,828 filed Apr. 25, 2017.

SUMMARY OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a novel method of game play and game components that, in one embodiment, is in the form of playing cards associated or representing phonetic sounds and a score. Cards are arranged in sequences to form words. In alternative embodiments, the components used to play the game may take other forms, such as a tiles, or the game may be played in different media, such as using electronic displays on a computer or electronic devices and on an interactive network. The game may be provided with a game board that allows the player to advance a game piece along designated spaces to a finish line or goal. In a version of the game, the game components comprise a plurality of vowel cards and constant cards, each of which reflects a unique verbal or auditory sound. The cards also have additional data in the form of a value for scoring and the pronunciation of the sound. Cards may also be provided on which is provided the fundamental rules of play as well as game versions. Alternatively, the rules and other game content is provided on a separate element such as a game board. The game board may also provide exemplary sounds and pronunciations. The game board, or electronic game board can also be used in connection with scoring of the game and game pieces that can travel on the game board to reflect the score of the game.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are many different kinds of board games and card games disclosed in the prior art One category of cards, referred to as trading cards, are used for collecting information about public figures, such as baseball players which typically has a photographic depiction of an athlete along with biographical and statistical information about the athlete. These baseball cards and other cards dealing with various sports figures are used by sports enthusiasts for gathering information about players and teams. Trading cards have also been developed in other areas, such as scientists, authors, and music performers and television and movie personalities, fantasy items, political figures and biblical figures. Games have been developed that use information conventionally provided on trading cards.

Trading cards are typically exchanged among enthusiasts to obtain cards that are needed to complete a set of related cards or to collect cards that are not readily available. Collectors buy and sell these cards for their economic and historic value. The cards themselves have varying monetary values, depending on the popularity of the particular card and the relative availability of each card, some being more common than others. Such cards are typically sold through retail game stores and other specialty outlets. Trading cards that incorporate novel game play have been the subject of a number of patents. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,332.

Playing cards, on the other hand, especially the well-known fifty-two deck cards, are well known and readily available. In contrast to trading cards, the cards themselves, individually and collectively, generally have no value other than for amusement. Many different games can be played with a single deck of playing cards, limited generally by the imagination of the players. Many games played with such conventional playing cards are games of chance. In other words, these games have rules that require either the random selection of cards or depend on the occurrence of events outside the control of the players. Other card games using conventional playing cards may use both chance and require strategy, such as bridge, hearts or poker.

Some card games require cards that have been especially printed for the game, and these cards also have little value outside the playing of that particular game. For instances, sometimes the cards are used to effect an action in a particular game, as, for example, cards used in monopoly. There other cards used for games of trivia, or to serve as prompts for players to perform an activity such as to play charades, make comparisons, create a drawing. Popular card games include Trivia Pursuit, Apples to Apples, and Cards Against Humanity and many of these games may include a companion game board.

It is also conventional in many card games to use a scoring algorithm wherein the correct answers to questions or the successful exercise of skill results in the award of points. For example, in a trivia game, a question is posed to a player, and if the player answers the question correctly, the player is permitted to secure a game piece and advance toward a winning location on the board or otherwise secure an award. In different card games, if a player cannot answer the question correctly or skillfully exercise a task, no advancement occurs, the player may have to move to a less advantageous position n backwards, no prize is awarded or no points are earned. The questions of conventional trivia games often have specific answers and may include subject matter such as a sports, arts, geography, politics, history, science and popular culture.

There also exist “flash cards” that are primarily used for educational purposes and which assist with learning. Flash cards have been developed to assist students with a variety of subjects including math, history, science and typically the cards have a question, word or equation on a first side and an answer, definition, or translation on the reverse side of the card. Flash cards may also be provided for learning facts about particular words or subjects.

There are flash cards that are directed to phonics and used to assists students to learn to read. Phonics flash cards may have a particular sound that is represented by letters and an example of the sound as used in a common word.

Scrabble® is a popular board game that uses a plurality of tiles, each tile reflecting a letter or wild card and which include a point value. Scrabble includes an associated game board that includes bonus point values depending on the location on the board wherein a letter game piece is played. Many board games and card games have been the subject of patents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,655 is directed to a board game simulating horse racing and wagering; U.S. Pat. No. 5,301,953 directed to a construction board game with chance device; U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,565 is directed to a board game generally relating to reducing or managing stress; U.S. Pat. No. RE 37,957) which is trading card game and method of play assigned to Wizards of the Coast me; U.S. Pat. No. 5,810,666 for a role playing game that involves cards, a game board and game pieces

Other popular prior art games subject to U.S. patents include U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,279 for the game know as Twister®; U.S. Pat. No. 1,903,661 directed at the game marketed under the trademark Sorry® that includes a game board having tracks illustrated along marginal edges, U.S. Pat. No. 7,486,28 relating to a land purchasing game that was later marketed under the Monopoly® trademark by Parker Brothers and U.S. Pat. No. 53,561 to Milton Bradley for the game of Life®.

A game referred to as “Mad Gab” that has particular relevance to the present invention was created by Terry White uses “sound out” puzzles where players to try to figure out a word or phrase based on simpler English-written sounds. The game is designed so that a person would find it difficult to decode the meaning of the phrase unless verbalized and audibly heard. In general. reading the phrase silently will not allow the player to decode the meaning because the sounds need to be encoded into meaningful English words.

The applicants are unaware of any games that use vowel and constant sounds as a game cards which can be combined to form words and include an associated scoring technique to allow a competition among a plurality of players.

SUMMARY OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a game played with cards, tiles or similar items and novel methods of game play. Data printed on a plurality of game cards or pieces reflect a phonetic sound on each card, card substitute or simulation of a card. The game involves the creation of a completely deck or set of cards containing a data set that corresponding to phonetic sounds further as described and disclosed herein. While the examples provided herein use sounds in the English language, it is contemplated that the game may be adapted to other language which include other phonic sounds. The general object of the game is to combine cards to form words. In embodiments, each card also includes a score element that is associated with each card.

In an embodiment, a plurality of cards sets is provided, a first set of cards having constant sounds and a second deck of cards having vowel sounds. The cards also include the phonetic pronunciation of the respective sound identified on each card. For example, the consonant sounds provides on unique cards include “F” as in the word “flock”; “L” as in the word “level”; “K” as in the word kick;” R as in the word “rare.” In addition, cards are provided for a consonant clusters, consonant sequences or consonant compounds which are defined as a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel including SP, TH, SC, ST, PH, CR. Consonant combos also include t+SH=CH, D+caSual=J (the sound of the capitalized S), and n+g=NG (as in soNG). Then there are 6 vowel combos as well for all of the sounds with “r” in them: or, ar, er, ear, air, our (as in yOUR). In addition, there are a plurality of wild cards for both vowels and consonants in each card set. For example, in embodiments, there are two “Any Vowel” and three “Any Consonant” cards that are worth zero points in face value, but are worth one point in the total number of cards played.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the steps of executing a turn further include the steps of either playing on existing card arrays or creating a new array with as many cards as possible. As will be appreciated by the foregoing, the present invention provides a game that can be played in a number of game formats, including hand-holdable cards, electronic games, computer software, interactive networks, board games, and the like. The game permits players of all levels of skill and ability to participate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flowchart depicting the card play of three different versions of games that may be played with the cards according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an array of different phonetic sounds and a corresponding point for each and which is separated into sets of cards according to an embodiment of the invention along the horizontal and vertical lines.

FIG. 3 is an example of a combination of three cards, positioned adjacent to one another, to form a word.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a second example including instructions on the manner in which to calculate a score after forming a word.

FIG. 5 is a further example or alternative manner to form the word “earth” and how to calculate its score according to three manners in which the word may be created.

FIG. 6 shows an example of manner to combining sounds to form words that includes both voiced and unvoiced aspects.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS Game Play Version 1, “Pho Fish.”

FIG. 1 is a flowchart that depict methods of play for three distinct games that may be played with the card sets described herein. Now referring to FIG. 1, in each of the games the cards sets are removed and separated into two stacks at step 103, a first stack for vowels and a second stack for constants. In a preferred embodiment there are 110 cards for consonant sounds and 60 cards for vowels to a total of 160 playing cards. Other cards that provide instructions are also provided in the card set. Next, at step 105, the four consonant cards and three vowel cards are dealt to each player. The players then agree what version of the game will be played at step 107 and play is then ready to begin.

A first method of play, referred to as “Pho Fish” is illustrated beginning at step 106. The rules and sequence of the game proceeds as follows: First, a player to the left of the dealer starts the game play by either asking for a specific card (vowel/consonant) to begin their turn at step 111 or alternatively, the player may draw one card at step 112.

At step 115, all players holding the requested card must hand it to the player who asked for it. If a player has multiples of the same card, they must only give one. If no player has the requested card, the player taking the turn will draw a card from the deck corresponding to the card requested, either the consonant deck or vowel deck at step 117.

At step 119, the player exercising his or her turn, then lays down cards to form a word at step 120. Alternatively, the player may pass if he or she is unable to create a word with the cards in the player's hand. At step 125 points are tallied by adding the point value of each played card and the total value of the cards played. In embodiments, the player my advance a game piece the number of spaces on a game board that correspond to point value. In embodiments using a game board, other actions such as take an additional turn, lose a turn, advance additional spaces, select another player to retreat a number of spaces, proceed to a particular space, etc. In other embodiments, the score may be kept on a notebook until a predetermined number of player turns have been completed or, in a further embodiment, when a first player exceeds a predetermined score, the game is completed.

In an embodiment, multiple words may be created by the same array of cards. According to a rule that may be adopted, multiple words may be created as read from left to right and top to bottom as set forth in step 130.

When the scoring has been competed the player discards the cards that were played at step 135 and replenishes his or her hand at step 138. The Player then replenishes their hand to three vowels and four consonants ending their turn. At that time the player's turn is finished and the next player exercises a turn beginning at step 106.

As illustrated at step 150, when all of the cards have been used, the points are totaled and recorded; in an alternative embodiment, the game ends after a previously decided amount of turns has passed.

Game Play Version 2, “Pho Rummy”

Now referring to step 155, a second game that may be played with the cards that are disclosed herein is referred to as the rummy version. In this game version, the sequence of play proceeds as follows: At step 158, a player flips the top cards of each vowel and consonant deck to create a respective discard pile. At step 160 a Player to the left of the dealer starts by drawing two cards from either deck (2 consonant cards and 2 vowel cards s) or the top card from either discard pile.

Next, at step once the player has drawn, they may lay down a word or pass their turn as illustrated at step 120. Play and scoring then proceeds as described above. After play, the player then replenishes their hand to three vowels and four consonants. Next, the player then discards a consonant or a vowel card in its respective discard pile ending their turn. The next step involves totaling up points and recording the scores; the game ends after a previously decided amount of turns has passed or a predetermined threshold score has been reached. The discard pile may be shuffled to keep the game proceeding.

Game Play Version 3, “Phonagrams”

In a further version of game play illustrated being at step 170 of FIG. 1, the first step or move 171 is to flip the top vowel card on the vowel card pile to start the game. Next, at step 175 the player to the left of the dealer starts by playing a word horizontally (left-right) or vertically (top-bottom) that connects to the vowel card in play. All the following players must use at least one card from previous plays to connect their play to the rest. Next the player replenishes their hand to three vowels and four consonants ending their turn. When the cards are extinguished, the total points are calculated and recorded; the game ends after a previously decided amount of turns has passed, a first player exceeds a predetermined score or when the deck runs out. Scores are calculated by totaling the amount of points designated by the face of each card, and adding one additional point for each card played.

Game Play Version 4, “Go Fish Rummy”

In yet a further game version according to the invention, each player is dealt 7 cards and next then the first player (with those 7 cards) plays one word, replenishes their hand and the turn is over. Play is continued until a specified number of rotations or till the deck runs out.

Referring now to FIG. 2, in connection with the embodiment that uses a plurality of playing cards, a chart 201 is provided that indexes the entire range of cards and respective sounds that make up the game. The chart, that is included with the deck of playing cards, includes examples of how each sound is used. The playing card decks that are provided according to playing card version has multiple copies of identical cards with common sounds and vowels. New players are encouraged to read through each example to fully understand the obvious, yet tricky, changes in mechanisms of language. The alphabet used in the game is a synthesis of the American and British Phonetic Alphabets for English. In further embodiments, the game is adapted for other languages. In yet a further embodiment, players refer to Google's phonetic spelling of words (based off the Oxford Pocket Dictionary) to check spelling of words played (Google symbols are noted on each card). Since there are many dialects of English, the games phonetic alphabet is capable of capturing a wide range of sounds to form words. In embodiments of game play, a disputed play that does not follow Google's spelling must be acceptable by the majority of players.

Chart 201 depicted in FIG. 2 includes a phonetic symbol for each particular sound represented by the cards, such as element 205, a word 207 that uses the sound, the number of cards in the deck set 209 and the point value 210 of the card.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an array 301 of three cards 305, 307 and 309 are depicted adjacent to one another. The cards in this arrangement phonetically represent the word “horse” and the score associated with this play is 9 points reflecting the values on each of the cards played with to which three (3) is added that reflects the number of cards played.

FIG. 4 is graphical and textual representation of an exemplary scoring system using the word “flock” as an example. The word flock is created by the combination of four cards 405, 406, 407 and 408. A score of 9 points is calculated as illustrated by equation 410 by adding the number of cards sued (4) to the point value of each of the cards card used—which total 5.

FIG. 5 depicts yet a further example of scoring the word “earth” that formed by separate by valid card arrangements. Since the ER phonic sound was forced by using two cards in the example shown on the left side (sequence 507), the player, according a rule, is only awarded a single point for playing two cards 511 and 512 to reach the phonetic sound “ER.” Otherwise, the scoring is similar to the scoring technique discussed above. Cards 520 and 521 played to form the word earth is awarded a point value of 6.

Voiced vs Un-Voiced Sounds

While a full appreciation of linginstics is not required to splay the games, an awareness of some of the concept may help advance players. The concept of voice sounds which are sounds that activate the vocal chords can be contrasted unvoiced sounds. Unvoiced sounds do not use the vocal chords. Many sounds have voiced and unvoiced versions. For example, “S” as in “Super” is different from “Z” as in “Zebra.” These two sounds are performed in the same manner and location in the mouth but the Z uses the vocal chords. Players should be aware of this distinction when playing words that are pluralized (s/z) or in past tense (t/d). Words ending in voiced sounds receive the voiced sounds (z/d) and words ending in unvoiced sounds receive the unvoiced sounds (s/t). An effective manner to determine if a sound is voiced or unvoiced is to sound it out and focus on how your body makes the sound. A wide variety of rules may be adopted in connection with the governance of the sequence of play. For example, a rule may be implemented when a player has an opportunity to discard a number of cards of their hand for new ones instead of asking or drawing new cards. There may be wild cards which can reflect vowel sounds, constants and other sounds. In embodiments, words that have a sound in parentheses by “google definition,” the words can be played with or without the sound. For example “what” can be (h)w+e+t or . . . w+a+t. FIG. 6 provides examples combining sounds to form words that includes voiced and unvoiced aspects.

In a further embodiment, the game is played on an electronic device and simulated cards are dealt to the players. In an embodiment played on an electronic device, the player is dealt a simulated hand that reflect electronic images of cards as described above, and, upon a prompt that it is the players turn, can select cards and move the representation of the cards on a display screen to form a word.

In yet a further embodiment, a scoring algorithm is based upon the arrangement of the cards on a playing surface, such as used in the game Scrabble®. In this embodiment the words cards are laid on the board in a manner that allows other player to use and build on the cards that have been previously played.

In yet a further embodiment of the game, each phonetic card has a machine-readable code associated with an audio file. Play is affected by having players feed selected sequences of cards into a card reader and the reader then associate the code with a file in a memory. A central processor then looks up any word or words that have been associated with the phonetic sequence represented by the cards that have been played in a particular order. The processor then correlates an audio file from the card sequence from its memory and generates an audio signal with respect to the word. If the sequence is a recognized word, the processor will also automatically calculate a score for the turn for the player that executed the sequences. In embodiments, the processor also calculates the score and displays the score for the players on display that is visible to the players involved in the game play. In yet alternative embodiments, rather than actual physical cards with machine readable codes, a virtual card having the same information as the cards described is provided to players and the player is able to access the virtual cards and direct play using a curser or computer mouse pointer.

It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the embodiment have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and methods of play, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in the matters of rules, sequence of play and scoring within the principles of the present disclosure to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed. 

We claim:
 1. A method of playing a game comprising, a first step of distributing a plurality of items to a plurality of players, said items having representations of phonetic sounds represented on the items thereon and a scoring data, a step where a designated first player proceeds to play and attempts to arranged the items to create a phonetic representation when combined in a sequence to form a word, a further alternatively step of step of passing a turn, a further step of discarding cards, a further step of drawing new cards, and a further step wherein, in the event a word is successfully formed, the designated first player's score is calculated according to predetermined scoring algorithm, and a further step wherein a second designated player proceeds to play in accordance with the same play sequence as said first player.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said items are cards, said cards comprising a symbol for a phonetic sound, a word that demonstrates the phonetic sound, and a score value.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein said symbols are linguistic symbols.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising a game board and a plurality of game pieces said game board includes written instructions, and information relating to possible phonetic combinations and a series of indicia or spaces for receiving said game piece that and said spaces are arranged to have a starting point and ending point.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein said items comprise an electronic graphical representation of a phonetic sound and said game is played on at least one electronic device.
 6. The method of claim 4 wherein the said is played on a plurality of electronic devices in communication with one another.
 7. The method of claim 4 wherein said scoring steps are performed automatically by the electronic device.
 8. An electronic device including a processor and graphic display and controller, said controller for the simulated arranged on a screen display, wherein said controller accesses a memory that contains a plurality of symbols and letters representing phonetic sounds and said and said controllers provides a graphical representation of subset of such symbols, letters and score data, said graphic comprising an item, to players, and player provide input to said device to arrange said items in a designate order and then a further user input to reflect that the action is complete, and said controller is adapted to calculate a score based upon values on said items according to a predetermined algorithm.
 9. The device recited in claim 7 further comprising a loudspeaker, and in response to the user input of a selected sequence of item, said processor will correlate an audio file or files with said sequence and send a signal from said audio file or files to said loudspeaker. 